Biotech, Lupus, Diagnostics

Cypress Buys Lupus Test

Luke Timmerman 2/24/09

Cypress Bioscience (NASDAQ: CYPB), the San Diego-based developer of a drug for fibromyalgia, said today it has acquired technology from Cellatope to diagnose and monitor hard-to-detect autoimmune diseases like lupus. Cypress and its partner, New York-based Forest Laboratories, won FDA approval last month for milnacipran (Savella) as a treatment for a chronic muscle pain condition called fibromyalgia. Cypress plans to market that drug to rheumatology specialists, along with a range of other products to those doctors.

Luke Timmerman is the National Biotechnology Editor for Xconomy. You can e-mail him at ltimmerman@xconomy.com, call 206-624-2374, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ldtimmerman.